Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories collection, Interpreter of Maladies has some good stories that tend to differ in perspective and approach. Despite these differences, the stories are tied to same ideas and themes. The stories revolve around people of Indian decent though under different circumstances and roles. Some of these characters are Indian immigrants to the United States while others live in India.

The theme of marriage tends to rise quite frequently throughout the book. This theme can be observed in almost every story contained in the collection. Every marriage in every story has its own distinct characteristics. The story “Interpreter of Maladies” acts as a representation of marriage in distress. There are various instances where infidelity arises in the story. The story revolves around Mr. and Mrs. Das, who are America born Indian couple vacating in India accompanied by their children. Their tour guide Mr. Kapasi is strongly attracted to Mrs Das. There is no infidelity that takes place between the two (since Mrs. Das does not view Mr. Kapasi that way), but Mrs. Das opens up to Mr. Kapasi regarding her marriage. This shows that Mrs. Das a lot she has been holding back regarding her marriage, and saw this as an opportunity to share with someone. She goes ahead to reveal to him how Mr. Das (her husband) is not the father of one of his children. This is a fact that she asserts she has never told anyone else. Along the way, Mr.Kapsi tends to misunderstand the interest that Mrs. Das has towards him. He is of the opinion that she is attracted towards him romantically. He fantasizes on making love to her throughout the trip. He feels resentful that Mrs. Das only wants advice from him.

Mr. Kapasi’s marriage had hit a snag after the death of their son. His wife resents him since his job acts as a reminder of the son’s death. The separation from his wife has now left him searching for human connection. Mr. Kapasi now realizes that their marriage has no real intimacy since he has never seen his wife naked; her clothes are on even while making love. This occurrence proves that it is very important for a couple to sit and talk the way forward when a misfortune befalls them to avoid getting pulled away. Despite this, he can still see that Mrs. and Mr. Das have a loveless marriage. He asserts that “Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents. It seemed that they were in charge of the children only for the day; it was hard to believe they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves” (Lahiri 49).

The story a “Temporary Matter” also shows the ending of Shukumar and Shoba’s marriage. The dynamics of their marriage changed when their child died. They did not recover from this as they were no longer the same people as they used to be when they first met. The story shows how love can shift in the wake of certain experiences. It is a matter of circumstances and opportunities. “Sexy” is a story that also shows a different dimension of marriage. Miranda is the main character and is involved in an affair with Dev, who is a married man from India. Miranda had just met Dev at a makeup store. At the time, Dev was doing some shopping for his wife. His wife was flying to India, and this was convenient for Dev to get involved with Miranda. The two got into a routine very quickly on how they communicated with each other. Miranda views Dev to be romantic, and she is easily absorbed into the affair as she has never experienced this before. Miranda’s co-worker also spends significant time on the phone while at work trying to console her cousin who was married to an adulterous husband back in India. The husband had now left him for a white woman.

“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” gives another dimension of marriage. Mr. Pirzada had been sent by his government to study in America hence left his family in Pakistan. When the war started, he would write to his family almost every week, but had not heard from them in like six months. He was now longing to find his wife and family as he feared they might be dead. Upon returning to Pakistan, Pirzada was able to reunite with his family as he found them safe without having encountered any harm.

The story “The Third and Final Continent” on the other hand revolves around a man that had settled in Boston after completion of his college education in England. He briefly returns to India before settling in America. He was expected to marry a woman in an arranged marriage as he had never met her before. He describes the awkwardness in their relationship after she had joined him in Boston later on and they started to live together. However, this turns out to be a successful marriage, and later he is amazed “that there was a time (he and his wife) were strangers” (Lahiri 197).

There is a need to care about the marriage theme due to the lessons that Lahiri is trying to put across. Among them is the teaching of the importance of communication in marriages. This aspect is more in the story “Interpreter of Maladies”. Most of the issues that these couples have stemmed from the lack of efficient and sufficient communication. Mr. Kapasi and his wife have been living as strangers after the death of their child. If the two communicated appropriately after the occurrence of this misfortune, things might have been different as they would have expressed their hidden sorrows and comforted each other to help their bond remain strong. The same thing looks to be happening between Mr. and Mrs. Das. If there was open communication, things would be much better.

Lahiri also tries to show that marriage is more of a fluid invention rather than a solid institution. How things operate depend on how the partners involved approach their affairs. This is why Lahiri has featured marriages that are flowed and others that seem to be moving in the appropriate direction. Partners in a marriage are their own downfall when things go sour. Aspects such as infidelity are things that people can avoid to help preserve their marriages since this is one of the vices that many partners are not willing to forgive hence resulting to divorce.. Lahiri has also tried to eliminate the stereotype that comes with arranged marriages. “The Third and Final Continent” demonstrates an arranged marriage that is more successful compared to other marriages in this collection. This is because people see it as a negative concept at all times, but the story has shown that it can be successful if the people involved are interested in working things out.

Lahiri’s writing builds on the theme of marriage in different ways by way of using characters with different life struggles, living in different geographical areas among others. To begin with, Lahiri uses Indians located in different geographical areas. There are those located in the United States, India, and Pakistan to help illuminate the issue. Lahiri has worked to show that regardless of where these people are located, they tend to be affected by similar issues in their marriage. Couples located in India are affected by the issue of infidelity just the same way couples in the United States are affected by the issue. The aspect of communication also comes out as an integral element in marriage regardless of the geographical location involved. Lahiri’s writing has tried to showcase the universality of marriage proponents.

Lahiri has also used characters in different cycles of life. These characters seem to be encountering different kinds of struggles that tend to affect their marriage lives. The characters seem to conflict with themselves and each other. The conflicts come as a result of the issues that the couples are encountering in life. Lahiri’s writing has come out to show how marriage is an institution that is tied to different aspects of life. Things happening around couples usually determine the direction that the marriage will take. That is why some of these stories have a happy ending while others have a negative ending.

Lahiri has also tried to put tradition at the heart of the stories while illuminating the theme of marriage. A good example is the arranged marriage in the story “The Third and Final Continent”. This is something that often happens in the Indian culture. From the outsiders perspective, most of the times this aspect is viewed negatively. However, Lahiri has come out to show that arranged marriages could even have a good ending. He is trying to prove that the success of a marriage is not determined by whether it is arranged or otherwise. It is more of how positive in communication the couples are and the type of attitude that they bring along. A negative attitude is highly probable to result to failure of a marriage.

Work Cited

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter Of Maladies: Stories. Boston, Mariner Books – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999,.

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